Many churches have asked actor Lance Pierson to perform his one-man performance of Mark's Gospel this Easter.

The first Christians heard, rather than read about the story of Jesus. Now many churches are opting to follow in their footsteps by hearing the story of Mark's Gospel re-told by actor Lance Pierson.

Pierson has been performing his presentation for the last four years but it was last year that Graham Jones, the Bishop of Norwich, said, "How refreshing it is to hear the gospel told in such a vivid way much as some of the first Christians heard it."

Like the disciples who went out preaching after Jesus' ascension, Lance aims to make the Gospel as accessible as possible to his audience. He has abridged the story to fit into eighty minutes and uses Alan T Dale's translation (New World, the heart of the New Testament in plain English) as it is accessible and takes no background knowledge or technical language for granted.

He also uses a power point presentation to show pictures of the landscape of modern day Israel to enhance the audience's visualisation of the story, a technique the disciples obviously did not have at their disposal!

Lance is based in London but this Easter he will be travelling out to Norfolk, Kent, Oxford and even Wales (at the New Word Alive conference) to perform the Gospel. In 2007 he took the show as far as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Andrew Graystone of Fords Lane Church in Bramhall, Stockport, said: "There were eight year-olds and eighty year-olds in the audience, but it felt as if we were all hearing the Gospel story for the first time. Cancel your church service and let God speak to you in his own words."

Lance will be taking his show to the following towns:

March
Friday 20th St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley (Surrey)
Saturday 21st St Peter's Upper Church, Pembury (Kent)
Friday 27th St Nicholas' Church, Sevenoaks (Kent)
Sunday 29th Sparham Deanery (Norfolk)

April
Wednesday 1st New Word Alive, Pwllheli (Wales)
Friday 3rd East Finchley Baptist Church (London)
Saturday 4th St Peter's Church, Stoke Fleming (Devon)
Sunday 5th St Leonard's Church, Exeter (Devon)
Monday 6th St Alban's Church, North Harrow (London)
Tuesday 7th St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford (Oxon)
Wednesday 8th St Mary the Virgin, Chipping Norton (Oxon)
Thursday 9th Greyfriars Church, Reading (Berkshire)


On the web: www.lancepierson.org